MCHENRY — The hits were hard to come by for the Hononegah baseball team in Wednesday’s Class 4A McHenry Sectional. For a second straight year, the Indians fell to Algonquin Jacobs in a sectional semifinal, this time 7-1 at Petersen Park.

Hononegah leftfielder Sam Ballano went 1-for-2 with a run scored and two stolen bases in the game.

“We came in here thinking we could win this game,” said Ballano, whose hit came in the top of the fifth inning. “We had a great season, but it would have been nice to go farther.”

Jacobs pitcher Reilly Peltier took the mound and seemed rattled, which helped the Indians get two batters on base as a result of back-to-back walks to begin the first inning. However, the nerves were settled after Jacobs coach Jamie Murray talked to Peltier during a timeout and the senior struck out the Indians’ next three batters to end the inning.

“He’s a gamer,” Murray said of Peltier. “He wanted to go out there and compete and once he got settled, he got the pitch down in the zone and obviously those three strikeouts settled him down.”

Peltier, who allowed three walks, one earned run with 11 strikeouts through 6 2/3 innings, said he was too excited at the start of the game.

“I wanted to win and my emotions were all over the place,” said Peltier, whose team defeated the Indians 3-2 in eight innings in last year’s sectional semifinal. “I had to focus on what I needed to do and it was great, because my team helped me and it helped us to get the win.”

The opportunity to get Jacobs’ ace pitcher out of the game early was a part of the game plan for the Indians (24-12).

“I felt we had a chance early to knock their top pitcher out of the game, but we let him off the hook and gave him a bunch of runners in scoring position earlier on,” Hononegah coach Matt Simpson said. “We were hoping to get into their pen. We had opportunities early and weren’t able to come up with that big hit.”

Jacobs (24-13) led 2-1, before Matt Kozlak blasted a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning for a 3-1 lead. The Golden Eagles added four runs in the sixth inning to put the game away.

Donovin Sims, one of six seniors on the Indians’ roster, took the loss. He had three strikeouts and allowed 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings.